From Keng As we were given this task, I was actually very excited by the idea of being able to develop resources as a class to be used by everybody to teach VCE Biology in the future. However when I came to know that we have to put it onto the Wiki page, it was a big mental block for me. Since I always have this phobia of putting stuff on the web, it was a big deterrent for me to get started on developing the Wiki. It was until Layal – my Wiki group member- and Rob – another Big Idea’s Wiki group member- showed me how to get started on putting stuff on the Wiki that I began to take a plunge onto the Wiki. So thanks to my Wiki associates for selflessly giving away their time for me! J Interesting to hear your thoughts, Keng! I am sure that you will long recall your emotional response to beginning this task. Beginning any new task can be hard, and you'll find that students can sometimes be reluctant to 'try new things' due to this kind of 'fear'!
After developing the Wiki, I felt I have benefited from the following:
1)Opportunities to research for relevant and reliable information on the internet
2)Opportunities to develop other resources such as worksheets and questions to complement information gathered from the internet for teaching
3)Opportunities to develop my lessons so that I incorporated the various multiple intelligences across the time I have to teach the Big Idea
4)Developed confidence in using the Wiki from the Help tool in the Wiki
5)Having a head start to resources around this Big Idea when I have to next teach
Siaan's Reflection Before undertaking this task, i was totally unfamiliar with WIKI's and what they actually entailed. Furthermore, i was unaware of their usefulness!
Whilst after the introduction lesson on WIKI I felt more knowledgeable about what was expected of us, there were still so many questions...to what depth am I supposed to go into my lessons and resources, how much extra information should I include and then the big one...HOW DO I DO ALL OF THIS???!!!! I felt ill-equipped for completing this task and that we were left to our own devices to figure out how at this stage.The task was deliberately 'open ended', to allow you to explore new ways of creating teaching and learning resources, and new ways to collaborate online. I did not want to make the 'criteria for assessment' arduous or overly difficult to achieve. However this kind of open-endedness in a rubric or instructions for assessment is often difficult to interpret, and some students desired greater guidance on what was required. Thus I more or less just threw myself in and navigated through WIKI space. Once I felt I had learnt the basics, the rest was fairly simple...a matter of adding links here and there and fixing up our pages to make them look appealing.
The biggest problem I felt I encountered was editing the WIKI. I feel the web page itself limits you here.Many people encountered problems with this aspect of the task. The process of creating the WIKI, developing resources and lessons and having materials to teach an entire unit is very beneficial. WIKI space develops not only your teaching skills by getting you to think about "how" to teach something and "why" (through construction of the Big Idea), but it also extends ones ICT abilities. I feel much more confident in creating such a page now and feel i am capable at implementing this is other areas of study. In addition the fact that WIKI space is a website, allows others to use and contribute to your information and ideas.
For next year, i would recommend extra support be provided in terms of introducing WIKI and the "how to".Thank you for this suggestion!
From Layal Initially at the beginning of this assignment I couldn't quite get my head around the idea of creating a Wiki and its usefulness, but since completing the work it has become clear to me that Wiki’s can not only be used as a valuable teacher resource but also as a method of assessment. For me personally I found that creating a Wiki gave me extra confidence and skills when using a webpage.Glad to hear it.Also I found it very useful to actively divide up a unit and decide on what specifically was the big ideas involved in a particular topic. It allows me as a teacher to know exactly what the focus of my activities should be. Since each person is creating a wiki this is going to be great to refer to for next year or in the future when teaching VCE biology. By combining the entire classes Wikis we will have 2 years worth of units of work. The true value of the Wiki will be discovered next year when we are in the classroom teaching.True... I'd love to hear if you use this wiki and whether you continue to build on it and collaborate with others... please keep me posted!
From Alicia
The idea behind a wiki is fantastic - the fact that everyone can access it and edit it. Information is not static and is constantly changing as new information comes to hand. As members of science, we know that new ideas, theories and discoveries are always coming to the forefront. Creating a wiki as an assessment task was also valuable in that we have something that we can actually use in our teaching next year and not another essay to clog up our hard drive!! Working with other group members on the wiki meant that we didnt have to send information via word documents etc to each other - forever being unsure which is the most current version of the task. Yes I think this aspect is important.
Working with the wiki was difficult to use in some respects and could get quite frustrating at times. For example, you cannot change the width of a table column manually. Also, what the document looked like before I pressed "save" looked nothing like the final product. I think wikispaces needs to make it a bit simpler to embed tables within tables.
All in all, I think in future to give students an online resource I will be using a website created in word. I am more familiar with how to use the elements in Word and make the document look attractive while still conveying relevant information.
I can't wait to see what the other groups have put together! What a valuable resource for us to have to begin our teaching!! I hope that you find it a useful resource :-)
From Keng
As we were given this task, I was actually very excited by the idea of being able to develop resources as a class to be used by everybody to teach VCE Biology in the future. However when I came to know that we have to put it onto the Wiki page, it was a big mental block for me. Since I always have this phobia of putting stuff on the web, it was a big deterrent for me to get started on developing the Wiki. It was until Layal – my Wiki group member- and Rob – another Big Idea’s Wiki group member- showed me how to get started on putting stuff on the Wiki that I began to take a plunge onto the Wiki. So thanks to my Wiki associates for selflessly giving away their time for me! J Interesting to hear your thoughts, Keng! I am sure that you will long recall your emotional response to beginning this task. Beginning any new task can be hard, and you'll find that students can sometimes be reluctant to 'try new things' due to this kind of 'fear'!
After developing the Wiki, I felt I have benefited from the following:
1) Opportunities to research for relevant and reliable information on the internet
2) Opportunities to develop other resources such as worksheets and questions to complement information gathered from the internet for teaching
3) Opportunities to develop my lessons so that I incorporated the various multiple intelligences across the time I have to teach the Big Idea
4) Developed confidence in using the Wiki from the Help tool in the Wiki
5) Having a head start to resources around this Big Idea when I have to next teach
Siaan's Reflection
Before undertaking this task, i was totally unfamiliar with WIKI's and what they actually entailed. Furthermore, i was unaware of their usefulness!
Whilst after the introduction lesson on WIKI I felt more knowledgeable about what was expected of us, there were still so many questions...to what depth am I supposed to go into my lessons and resources, how much extra information should I include and then the big one...HOW DO I DO ALL OF THIS???!!!! I felt ill-equipped for completing this task and that we were left to our own devices to figure out how at this stage. The task was deliberately 'open ended', to allow you to explore new ways of creating teaching and learning resources, and new ways to collaborate online. I did not want to make the 'criteria for assessment' arduous or overly difficult to achieve. However this kind of open-endedness in a rubric or instructions for assessment is often difficult to interpret, and some students desired greater guidance on what was required. Thus I more or less just threw myself in and navigated through WIKI space. Once I felt I had learnt the basics, the rest was fairly simple...a matter of adding links here and there and fixing up our pages to make them look appealing.
The biggest problem I felt I encountered was editing the WIKI. I feel the web page itself limits you here. Many people encountered problems with this aspect of the task.
The process of creating the WIKI, developing resources and lessons and having materials to teach an entire unit is very beneficial. WIKI space develops not only your teaching skills by getting you to think about "how" to teach something and "why" (through construction of the Big Idea), but it also extends ones ICT abilities. I feel much more confident in creating such a page now and feel i am capable at implementing this is other areas of study. In addition the fact that WIKI space is a website, allows others to use and contribute to your information and ideas.
For next year, i would recommend extra support be provided in terms of introducing WIKI and the "how to". Thank you for this suggestion!
From Layal
Initially at the beginning of this assignment I couldn't quite get my head around the idea of creating a Wiki and its usefulness, but since completing the work it has become clear to me that Wiki’s can not only be used as a valuable teacher resource but also as a method of assessment.
For me personally I found that creating a Wiki gave me extra confidence and skills when using a webpage. Glad to hear it. Also I found it very useful to actively divide up a unit and decide on what specifically was the big ideas involved in a particular topic. It allows me as a teacher to know exactly what the focus of my activities should be.
Since each person is creating a wiki this is going to be great to refer to for next year or in the future when teaching VCE biology. By combining the entire classes Wikis we will have 2 years worth of units of work.
The true value of the Wiki will be discovered next year when we are in the classroom teaching. True... I'd love to hear if you use this wiki and whether you continue to build on it and collaborate with others... please keep me posted!
From Alicia
The idea behind a wiki is fantastic - the fact that everyone can access it and edit it. Information is not static and is constantly changing as new information comes to hand. As members of science, we know that new ideas, theories and discoveries are always coming to the forefront. Creating a wiki as an assessment task was also valuable in that we have something that we can actually use in our teaching next year and not another essay to clog up our hard drive!! Working with other group members on the wiki meant that we didnt have to send information via word documents etc to each other - forever being unsure which is the most current version of the task. Yes I think this aspect is important.
Working with the wiki was difficult to use in some respects and could get quite frustrating at times. For example, you cannot change the width of a table column manually. Also, what the document looked like before I pressed "save" looked nothing like the final product. I think wikispaces needs to make it a bit simpler to embed tables within tables.
All in all, I think in future to give students an online resource I will be using a website created in word. I am more familiar with how to use the elements in Word and make the document look attractive while still conveying relevant information.
I can't wait to see what the other groups have put together! What a valuable resource for us to have to begin our teaching!! I hope that you find it a useful resource :-)